A Collection About Not Being Good Enough for Parents: Never Satisfied, Acceptance, Rabbit Hole of Failure
In this collection we are shown how difficult it is to be a wonderful teenager. As this character shares the challenges faced when no matter what they do they will never be good enough for their parents. Not because they genuinely aren’t trying but because they are constantly being compared to their siblings, a shadow they cannot get out from behind. In Never Satisfied they give a day in their life where perfection isn’t perfect because their parents are never satisfied. In Acceptancethey relive the day they rush home to tell their parents that they have been accepted into the best school in the state. The sadness in this success is when the parents slowly dig a hole into their smile stealing it away with every negative comment finding more interest in the evening paper and their tea than in their child’s success. And finally, inRabbit Hole of Failure like Alice we fall down the rabbit hole and remember that sometimes even in our dreams that seem so real and positive and make us not want to wake up- eventually we must. Reality comes back to life and we are left reminded of our failures but wishing our dreams could be our reality. This collection is heartbreaking while touching on a truth that is real for many people who fight for their parents to see them as what they are, not what they want them to be.
***This collection is written from the female perspective but can easily be changed to fit a male performer.
Not Being Good Enough for Parents
Never Satisfied
I never thought I would find myself here.
Standing at a podium in the basement of a church
Looking out over a room full of strangers and for what?
I’m not an alcoholic, drug addict or depressed.
My name is __________ and my parents are never satisfied.
I would practice my introduction for one of those AA-ish meetings
But I looked, there is no group, no meet up, no therapy for what I have
My friends would tell me that I should be happy that I have parents.
That I have both
That they actually care enough to hurt my feelings and make me feel nonexistent
I’m in a lose lose situation.
I always lose.
Let me try to explain it to you
My sister and brother were straight A students
My sister played the violin, tennis, chess- and she was the only girl on the team
My brother was captain of the baseball team, all state swimmer, and he ran track
I am in three sports, president of two organizations and I do everything that I am supposed to do